New mothers with severe mental illness (SMI) frequently experience significant difficulties in caring for their babies. There are no structured, evidence-based interventions that guide health professionals to help these women improve early parenting. The extensively researched and effective Triple P Positive Parenting Programme has recently been expanded to families with children less than 1 year old, which provides an opportunity to develop the intervention for women with severe postnatal mental illness. This study explored the views of mothers with SMI about the acceptability and feasibility of Baby Triple P (Baby TP) in the setting of a psychiatric Mother and Baby Unit (MBU). An 88-item Q-sort was conducted with a purposive sample of 15 mothers using Q-methodology. Three main factors were identified: 'what we need', 'what we want' and 'we can do it'. A consensus was noted with general agreement about the benefits of Baby TP, and suitability of the MBU environment to accommodate Baby TP. Baby TP was viewed as an acceptable and feasible parenting intervention and deemed positive and non-stigmatising. Mothers requested more staff awareness and knowledge about the programme so that they were supported in learning and generalising skills.

An understanding of the development of emotional knowledge can help us determine how children perceive and interpret their surroundings and color-emotion associations are one measure of the expression of a child's emotional interpretations. Emotional understanding and color-emotion associations were examined in a sample of UK school children, aged 7-8 years. Forty primary school children (mean age = 7.38; SD = 0.49) were administered color assessment and emotional understanding tasks, and an expressive vocabulary test. Results identified significant gender differences with girls providing more appropriate and higher quality expressions of emotional understanding than boys. Children were more able to link color to positive rather than negative emotions and significant gender differences in specific color preferences were observed. The implications of adult misinterpretations of coloremotion associations in young children are discussed.

Results indicate a perceived clinical need for parenting interventions and provide guidance to further develop and implement such interventions.

Tic disorders can have an emotional and social impact on children and families, which can in turn have a reciprocal impact on tics. Research into parenting interventions within this population is limited. Twenty-five professionals’ views on the acceptability, effectiveness, feasibility and utility of parenting interventions were explored using Q-methodology. Three highly correlated factors emerged, indicating three viewpoints with discrete elements that were underpinned by similar general perspectives. All factors endorsed a psychological approach, the importance of parenting practices, and theoretical and clinical justifications for parenting interventions. Discrete elements of the viewpoints debated the advocated focus, barriers and audience of interventions. Multidisciplinary professionals endorsed parenting interventions as a therapeutic tool within tic disorders. Results provide suggestions to further develop and implement interventions.

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